The call comes down the line, and the players begin to file up, taking their places along the white stripe in left field. Some adopt something of a sprinter’s stance, while others face the foul pole in a baserunner’s lead-off position.

“Ready…go!”

With these words, Joe Ross takes off like a bullet. These are easy sprints, and Ross accordingly has taken the last seven in a fast jog. But for this last run, he pushes himself fairly hard to the set of cones about 50 yards away in left-center field, where he makes the turn to come back to the foul line.

He leads the pack by a good margin, with only one other player seriously challenging him. This is no race, but Ross can’t resist the competition. He crosses the line five feet in front, a huge grin on his face and his arms thrown wide in celebration.

This could be just another day of varsity baseball practice at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, Calif., where he played last year.

But for Ross, the No. 10 prospect in the San Diego Padres organization according to Baseball America, this isn’t high school anymore. This is the Padres’ two-week mini-camp for their top prospects at the spring training complex in Peoria before the rest of the minor leaguers report.

“I like it, I like the one-on-one time with the coaches,” Ross said. “I feel like we get a lot of good work in and good instruction.”

While using different fields and locker rooms from the big league camp, Ross and the other mini-camp participants still manage to interact some with the other players.

“It’s hard not to, I guess, stare and say like ‘That’s, like, so-and-so’ – like ‘that’s Carlos Quentin’ or ‘that’s Mark Kotsay’ or something like that,” he said. “It’s cool being around them, and (to) kind of see how they are off the field, you know? They’re all actually pretty cool guys off the field.”

Ross, a right-handed pitcher, is a mere 18 years old and so perhaps can be forgiven for being occasionally starstruck. He had signed a letter of intent to play at UCLA before being drafted with the 25th overall pick in last year’s June draft. Harboring a good deal of respect and enthusiasm for UCLA, it took Ross a while to decide what he was going to do. But in the end, the allure and certainty of furthering his career professionally won out.

“This was the best opportunity, I guess, for me to continue on with my career – because I mean, once I get to school, who knows what could happen? I could get injured,” he said. “I figured, ‘Why not start now?’, I guess. It was a great opportunity, so I guess I had to take it.”

Ross signed with the team for $2.75 million in mid-August and joined the Arizona League Padres (rookie) shortly thereafter. He made one appearance, surrendering two hits and hitting a batter in one inning of work. Yet despite the less-than-ideal professional debut, Ross said that it was still a memorable moment.